Thriller!

Living on the edge.

There are two kinds of people in the world: People who do stunts that will take them close enough to death that they can run their fingers through its hair, and people who like to watch them doing it. The first group can't wait to rollerblade down the mouth of an active volcano. The second group loves to watch in suspense, screaming "OH MY GOSH!!!" and then go home, reheat the leftover casserole, and call it a night.

Both groups recently had fun when Robbie "Kaptain" Knievel jumped over 24 delivery trucks at Kings Island amusement park, earning a world record. King Island is a historic place for the Knievel Mishpacha. It was there that Robbie's father, Evil Knievel, performed one of his most famous stunts -- jumping over 16 buses -- back in 1975.

Before heading out to the starting ramp, Knievel had a quick pep-talk with the over 40,000 people who came to see him flirt with death. "Hopefully I'll see you after the jump." He wasn't joking. His father has the world record for broken bones, after breaking them more than 40 times. He also spent 29 day in a coma after crash landing an attempt to jump the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

David Blaine is another example of someone who seems unable to enjoy life unless he's hanging on to it by a thread. His most famous stunts include spending 44 days suspended over the River Thames with no food. He lost 50 pounds and needed medical intervention at the end, but he said, "The first 28 days were beautiful. I'd never throw that one away, although I did get major organ failure." He endured 62 hours encased in an ice block in Times Square and spent seven days in a coffin with no food and water.

I think his craziest stunt was his most recent. On April 30, 2008, he held his breath underwater for 17 minutes on Oprah. Afterwards he explained, "It was overwhelmingly intense. I felt my heart suffering, my lungs suffering. The urge to breathe was overwhelming." Most humans begin suffering irreparable brain damage after four minutes without fresh air. With training, you can dramatically increase that time limit, but there is still a risk of drowning or permanently damaging tissue in the brain, heart, or lungs.

Then there is Nur Malena Hassan, a 27-year-old woman from Malaysia, who spent 36 days in a glass enclosure with 3,069 poisonous scorpions. After her 17th sting she felt she had enough, stepped out of the box and started shopping in the mall where she performed her stunt.

Part of the motivation is the thrill we feel when we push ourselves to very limits of what's possible.

While these people are on the fringe, there are plenty of others who engage in very dangerous activities simply for the thrill of it. The bungee jumpers, the skydivers, the freestyle skiers and snowboarders, the extreme white water rafters and the surfers who ride out into 30 foot waves…

Back in my snowboarding heyday, I was drawn to taking runs through the freestyle park and catching airtime on the jumps. There was something intoxicating about the fear, excitement, and intense concentration you feel while speeding up a ramp that will launch you into the sky. But it all ended for me the first time I took a really bad spill. I remember lying twisted on the icy snow, in massive pain, and telling myself, "That's it, no more of this. I hope to have kids one day, and they are going to need a daddy in full working order!"

Why do some people gamble with their lives for sport? Part of the motivation is the thrill we feel when we push ourselves to very limits of what's possible. At that moment, we are living on the edge, and that causes an exhilarating, intoxicating rush of emotions. David Blaine regularly says that his goal is to show people that we are capable of doing things that are normally thought of as impossible, that by going to the edge and pushing outward we can stretch human accomplishment beyond our wildest dreams.

The good news is that we can live on the edge without hanging off a glacier or running in front of dozens of two-ton bulls. In Judaism we see all those feats of strength and physical prowess as insignificant compared to the limits we can and need to push in realm of character development.

Who is strong? One who overpowers his inclinations. As is stated (Proverbs 16:32), "Better one who is slow to anger than one with might, one who rules his spirit than the conqueror of a city." (Ethics of Our Fathers, 4:1)

When dealing with physical strength, humans are insignificant. A grasshopper can jump 30 inches. If humans could jump that many times their body length, they could cover an entire football field in a single bound, without a rocket powered motorcycle! A whale can stay underwater for two hours at a time and camels can live for 50 days without water. Our achievements in the physical realm are nothing compared to those of the animals around us. Our true strength lies in our character.

We can get our thrills by pushing ourselves to become better people than we ever thought possible.

We can get our thrills by pushing ourselves to become better people than we ever thought possible, and seeing the accomplishments we never believed possible. We can become more involved parents, more attentive husbands, more active Jews, and more caring humans than we think possible. Challenging ourselves with specific milestones that seem beyond our capabilities, and then striving mightily to reach them can be more cutting edge than sky-diving. Fighting with our natural negative inclinations and transforming ourselves into a new human being is harder than standing in a slab of ice for a week!

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter the father of the Mussar Movement, a movement focused intensely on character building, said that changing even one negative character trait is more difficult that learning the entire Talmud. The training, conditioning, focus, belief in oneself, willpower, and endurance necessary in building a better human are the most limit-pushing exercises available to mankind.

Let's try to focus on one character trait we would like to change, and write down a plan of action to utilize our summer to train ourselves in that area.
Real strength is not in stunts, it's in self-development; not in muscles but in mastery -- of ourselves.

Featured at Aish.com:

About the Author

Leiby Burnham, CSW, is a rabbi, psychotherapist, and writer. He lives in Detroit with his wife, an ICU nurse, who is on strict orders to "leave her patients at work" and their three daughters, Orah, Shifra and Rachel. Rabbi Burnham works for the Jean and Theodore Weiss Partners in Torah program of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, where he does community outreach, and runs a Jewish educational programs at University of Michigan, Wayne State, and Oakland University. He taught learning-disabled high school students for eight years in NYC, while receiving Rabbinical training at Shor Yoshuv Institute, and obtaining his Masters in Social Work from Yeshiva University.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 4

(4)
david,
July 25, 2008 8:45 AM

skydiving

To the halachist-actually, skydiving is safer than most sports. the chance of injury is higher in bicycling, golf, and soccer, than skydiving.

(3)
Anonymous,
June 8, 2008 11:28 AM

Jewish law

Jewish law generally forbids any actions which come even close to endangering one''s life, let alone activities like sky diving and the like.
There are exceptions, of course, such as being a commando in the armed forces of a country such as Israel.

People do get addicted the the adrenaline rush. When used for a good purpose, such as a volunteer ambulance, this might be good. But we are not the owners of our bodies, and hence must guard our bodies, which are as Rush Limbaugh would agree "on loan from G-d."

Interesting article.

(2)
Louise Jana,
June 8, 2008 5:54 AM

Real strength is in self-development

The best of all religions and spiritual development focus on self development. And the ONLY way to build a better world, is to build a better huaman being, one at a time. It is a slow and gradual process and the only way. As we grow and change in our inner characters, we role model that for our families, our friends and our neighbors and so it goes on. The Hope for our future lies within the great inner work that only WE can do.

(1)
ruth housman,
June 8, 2008 5:39 AM

real strength

I found this article very interesting. As a psychotherapist who has worked doing crisis, emergency services, I have found that the exhilaration of such a job is like living on the edge and the opportunity to help is so great as those who do this kind of work, as crisis means opportunity, have the ability to make a true difference if they are supportive and kind as often this is the first opening towards getting helped.

I have heard that many surgeons are "hooked" on their work and that their biggest highs occur while doing something life enhancing and life-threatening, working on the edge, as with someon needing open heart surgery. They are addicted to this.

It seems in life that there is a line that moves in both directions in all aspects of how we live. So moving along that line with one extreme being total security to the other extreme meaning taking total risks with one''s life, is another aspect of the bipolarity that permeates our existence. We see both in so many diverse ways: meaning going to the "poles" of life''s panoply of possible experiences.

I totally agree with your analysis of another kind of mastery and that being in the changing of character traits that push us towards, possibly, heightened humanity.

An interesting, provocative article!

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I want to know about the concept of "sin" due to Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge. The Christian concept of sin revolves around the fall of the man and the "original sin." Does Judaism view it the same way?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Adam and Eve were punished according to their actions. In other words, God laid down the conditions for Adam and Eve to live in the garden, provided they would not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. However, if they were to eat from that tree they would be punished by experiencing death. (If they had not eaten from the tree, they would have remained immortal.)

This sets down the basic principle in Judaism of Reward and Punishment. Basic to this is that every person has the choice of doing good or bad. When a person chooses "good" – as defined by God – he is able to draw close to God. In other words, every individual has a chance to "gain salvation" through his own actions.

My understanding of Christianity, however, is that the Original Sin has infected all of mankind to the point where individuals are incapable of achieving salvation through their own initiative. Man is "totally depraved" and therefore his only hope of salvation is through the cross.

This belief is contrary to the teachings of Judaism. From the Torah perspective, an individual does not need to rely on anyone else to atone for them. In Judaism, sins can be "erased" altogether by sincere repentance and a firm resolution never to repeat the mistakes.

For more on this, read "Their Hollow Inheritances" by Michael Drazin – www.drazin.com

Yahrtzeit of Moses in 1273 BCE (Jewish year 2488), on the same day of his birth 120 years earlier. (Consequently, "May you live to 120" has become a common Jewish blessing.) Moses was born in Egypt at a time when Pharaoh had decreed that all Jewish baby boys be drowned in the Nile River. His mother set him afloat in a reed basket, where he was -- most ironically -- discovered by Pharaoh's daughter and brought to Pharaoh's palace to be raised. When Moses matured, his heart turned to aid the Jewish people; he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jew, and he fled to Midian where he married and had two sons. God spoke to Moses at the Burning Bush, instructing him to return to Egypt and persuade Pharaoh to "let My people go." Moses led the Jews through the ten plagues, the Exodus, and the splitting of the Red Sea. Seven weeks later, the Jews arrived at Mount Sinai and received the Torah, the only time in human history that an entire nation experienced Divine revelation. Over the next 40 years, Moses led the Jews through wanderings in the desert, and supervised construction of the Tabernacle. Moses died before being allowed to enter the promised Land of Israel. He is regarded as the greatest prophet of all time.

Lack of gratitude is at the root of discontent. In order to be consistently serene, we must master the attribute of being grateful to the Creator for all His gifts. As the Torah (Deuteronomy 26:11) states, "Rejoice with all the good the Almighty has given you." This does not negate our wanting more. But it does mean that we have a constant feeling of gratitude since as long as we are alive, we always have a list of things for which to be grateful.

[Just before Moses' death] God said to him, "This is the Land that I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Deuteronomy 34:4).

The Midrash says that Moses pleaded to live long enough to be able to enter the Promised Land. He surrendered his soul only after God instructed him to enter Heaven and inform the Patriarchs that the Israelites had come to their Land and that God had indeed fulfilled His promise to give the Land of Israel to their descendants. To fulfill God's will was dearer to Moses than his craving to enter the Land.

It is only natural to cling to life, and the thought of leaving this world is depressing. However, if a person develops the attitude that he lives only in order to fulfill God's will, then life and death are no longer polar opposites, because he lives to do the will of God, and when that will requires that he leave this world, he will be equally obedient.

The seventh day of Adar is the anniversary of Moses' death. He wanted to enter the Promised Land so that he could fulfill the commandments and thereby have a new opportunity to fulfill the Divine wish. He surrendered his soul willingly when he was told that there was a special commandment for him to perform, one that could only be achieved after leaving this earth.

We refer to Moses as Rabbeinu, our teacher. He not only taught us didactically, but by means of everything he did in his life - and by his death, as well.

Today I shall...

try to dedicate my life to fulfilling the will of God, so that even when that will contradicts my personal desires, I can accept it with serenity.

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